1 Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said to him, Why [art] thou alone, and no man with thee? 2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said to me, Let no man know any thing of the business about which I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed [my] servants to such and such a place. 3 Now therefore what is under thy hand? give [me] five [loaves of] bread in my hand, or what there is present. 4 And the priest answered David, and said, [There is] no common bread under my hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women. 5 And David answered the priest, and said to him, Of a truth women [have been] kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and [the bread is] in a manner common, yes, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. 6 So the priest gave him hallowed [bread] : for there was no bread there but the show-bread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. 7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul [was] there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name [was] Doeg, an Edomite, the chief of the herdmen that [belonged] to Saul. 8 And David said to Ahimelech, And is there not here under thy hand a spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste. 9 And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it [is here] wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take [it] : for [there is] no other save that here. And David said, [There is] none like that; give it to me. 10 And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 And the servants of Achish said to him, [Is] not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? 12 And David laid up these words in his heart, and was greatly afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 And he changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. 14 Then said Achish to his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: why [then] have ye brought him to me? 15 Have I need of mad-men, that ye have brought this [man] to play the mad-man in my presence? shall this [man] come into my house?
1 Samuel · Noah Webster's Bible (1833)
1 Samuel 21 Noah Webster's Bible (1833)
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Achish
King of Gath to whom David fled twice, first feigning madness and later living in his territory with Ziklag as his town, and who trusted David until the Philistine commanders sent…
Cited in the guide: 1 Samuel 21:10; 1 Samuel 21:12; 1 Samuel 27:2
Ahimelech
The priest at Nob who gave David the consecrated bread and Goliath's sword, and whom Saul had put to death with his father's household at Doeg's hands.
Cited in the guide: 1 Samuel 21:1; 1 Samuel 22:9; 1 Samuel 22:11
David
The shepherd who became Israel's greatest king and a man after God's own heart.
Cited in the guide: 1 Sam. 16 - 1 Kings 2; 2 Sam. 7; 1 Chron. 2:15; Matt. 1:6
Doeg
Saul's chief shepherd, an Edomite who saw David at Nob, reported it to Saul, and at Saul's command killed eighty-five priests and put the town of Nob to the sword.
Cited in the guide: 1 Samuel 21:7; 1 Samuel 22:9; 1 Samuel 22:18
Cross references (13)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Nehemiah 11:32; Mark 2:26; Isaiah 10:32; 1 Samuel 14:3; 1 Samuel 16:4
- 2 Colossians 3:9; Galatians 2:12; 1 Samuel 22:22; 1 Samuel 19:17; 1 Kings 13:18
- 3 1 Samuel 21:4; Isaiah 3:6; Judges 9:29
- 4 Matthew 12:3–4; Exodus 19:15; Exodus 25:30; 1 Samuel 21:6; Zechariah 7:3
- 5 Leviticus 24:9; Leviticus 8:26; Acts 9:15; 2 Timothy 2:20–21; 1 Thessalonians 4:3–4
- 6 Luke 6:3–4; Leviticus 24:5–9; Matthew 12:3–4; Mark 2:25–27
- 7 1 Samuel 22:9; Psalm 52:1–9; 1 Chronicles 27:29; 2 Chronicles 26:10; Jeremiah 7:9–11
- 9 1 Samuel 17:2; 1 Samuel 31:10; 1 Samuel 17:50–54; Exodus 28:6–14
- 10 1 Samuel 27:1–2; Jeremiah 26:21; 1 Kings 19:3; Psalm 34:1–22
- 11 1 Samuel 29:5; Psalm 56:1–13; 1 Samuel 16:1; 1 Samuel 18:7–8
- 12 Luke 2:19; Psalm 56:3; Psalm 34:4; Luke 2:51; Genesis 26:7
- 13 Proverbs 29:25; Ecclesiastes 7:7; Psalm 34:1–22
- 14 Ecclesiastes 7:7
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… His Own Body and Blood: because when He commendeth His Own Body and Blood, He commendeth His Humility, in that which is written in this history, in that seeming madness of David, which we have passed by, "And his spittle ran down over his beard." When the Apostle was read, Ye heard the same spittle, but running down over the …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)
… him," then, "Allophyli in Geth." We find indeed, brethren, David himself, son of Jesse, king of Israel, to have been in a strange land among the Allophyli, when he was sought by Saul, and was in that city and with the king of that city, but that there he was detained we read not.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)